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ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, delivered a heartfelt plea last week for the passage of a bill letting people with severe persistent epilepsy, like his son Stephen, get a prescription for a form of hemp oil extract.

Schmitt tells KMOX that results are already being documented.

“I pray every night when I’m holding him, that something will make a difference,” he says.

Colorado is currently permitting the treatment and Schmitt says that families have moved to that state for relief. While the bill awaits Governor Nixon’s signature, the Senator told KMOX he and his wife had another scare with their son.

“We were walking into the school last week and we had to lay him on his side to make sure he was still breathing,” says Schmitt.

The hemp oil measure would allow those patients who have not had success with three other treatments, to have a neurologist prescribe it. The state would allow licenses to two non-profits to grow marijuana for that purpose.

The extract could have no more than .03 percent THC, the substance that creates a high in the user. He says a THC level that low will not create a high.

“There’s examples of kids who are having hundreds seizures a day, they are now having zero,” says Schmitt.